Kmart closing East Greenbush store

Kmart employees in East Greenbush have been told their store will close in June. Earlier this month, Kmart confirmed it was closing its stores in Latham and Clifton Park later this spring.

A Kmart spokesman couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. The East Greenbush store will start a liquidation sale almost immediately. The liquidation sales at the Latham and Clifton Park stores are set to start on Sunday.

“Store closures are part of a series of actions we’re taking to reduce ongoing expenses, adjust our asset base and accelerate the transformation of our business model,” Kmart spokesman Howard Riefs said earlier this month. “These actions will better enable us to focus our investments on serving our customers and members through integrated retail — at the store, online and in the home.”

Kmart and Sears are both struggling and have been closing stores. Kmart most recently closed its store at Routes 5 and 155 in Colonie. The holidays were tough on both retailers, with sharp drops in comparable-store sales from a year earlier. The Sears store at Colonie Center has leased part of its space to Whole Foods, which will open its first Capital Region market this spring.

The closing of the Kmarts in East Greenbush, Clifton Park and Latham will leave just five stores remaining in and around the Capital Region, in Rotterdam, Greenwich, Queensbury, Great Barrington, and Bennington.

I’m stunned. This store always seemed to be busy. I know several people who switched their allegiance & even corporate accounts to Kmart after struggling with mob scenes and lack of help in the East Greenbush Walmart. How soon till the other shoe drops and the remaining stores liquidate? Sounds to me like theyre pulling the plug. Soon, no more Kmart. But if theyre pulling the plug they should start with Sears. The Colonie Center store certainly seems moribund. The “membership” gimmick is absurd. Who is going to pay extra for a discount at Sears??? (Browsing around Sam’s Club & BJs I conclude membership & shopping either makes sense if you buy in bulk, e.g. have a large family. In what seems like desperation Sears has been selling lawn mowers all winter! Once upon a time, Sears Kenmore & ward’s Airline brands were must have. Now one can get the same thing, different brand, in Home Depot, Lowes, etc.

I remember when the Kmart on Central & 155 was a thriving, vibrant store. We all waited for “Blue Light Specials,” worth the wait. (Just as “Monkey Ward’s” Ward Day Sales were akin to the late, lamented Cohoes Fashion’s Washington’s Birthday Sale. People would park along Broadway, later 787.)

This is what happens when you have companies gobbling up other companies, leveraging company A to buy company B, leveraging B to buy Company C, robbing Peter to save Paul, robbing Paul to save James, robbing James to save John and, eventually you run out of apostles. And the clueless CEO of Sears will continue to cry all the way to his bank.

OMG I remember blue light specials when I was a kid, and my kids had good experiences with blue light specials. This stinks. I LOVE Kmart…. Will miss you dearly….. ( sad face, with tears)…
But, as Mikey commented, a bass Pro shop in any of these stores would be great.
Good bye KMart… Thanks for the memorable shopping visits… You will be missed.

Small big boxes swallowed up by mega big boxes. Sprawl rules. Boycott anti-union low-wage slaveholders. Stop buying schlock from China. Go on the internet and search for quality, well built products instead of trying to save a few bucks with something that you’ll dump in a landfill next year.

Well how is that economic recovery going? Are you convinced yet? Folks this is a symptom that things are not recovering, the weak fold up shop and the strong continue to struggle to survive. If you have drunk the kool aid that things are improving from both the pres and the gov, you are about to drown in it!!

I don’t think you can base the overall performance of the economy on another K-Mart closing. Look at all of the recent (and soon to happen) openings…Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Bonefish Grill, Ollie’s, TX Roadhouse etc. K-Mart has not had competitive pricing or products in years. One only has to look as far as the electronics section of a K-Mart to see that. Low end products with premium product pricing = low sales.

Years ago I used to go to the Kmart in Glenville, and bought all the paint there for my two homes. It was so sad when they closed right after the Walmart moved in. I used to love running there for little things for the house-I could find just about anything I needed and at a good price. Pretty soon, “Welcome K-Mart Shoppers” will be a distant memory, part of the folk lore of the late 20th century.

Kmart’s are being closed all over the country, including here in the Philadelphia, PA area. Sears Holdings (Kmart owner) has been losing money like crazy during every quarter so this is the result. Sadly, the ultimate losers will be all the associates who will be out of work.

Grew up with Kmarts, wards and sears. Cheap Chinese goods and walmarts dominance will shut most of them eventually. Sears is turning into a joke. They are a season ahead and they are stopping production of many of their lifetime guaranteed tools. Try to get a craftsman snow shovel now.